Movies, TV, and Games – News and Reviews – Opinions and Reflections

Cowboy Bebop is one of the few anime properties I can honestly say that I loved. In fact, it’s the only one, and only one of two that I even really like. You’d think then that the news of a live action remake would be exciting but as it turns out it kinda isn’t.

The live action version will be executive produced by Sunrise Inc. — the studio responsible for the original animated iteration — as well as Midnight Radio, Marty Adelstein, Becky Clements, and Matthew Weinberg. Midnight Radio consists of Josh Appelbaum, Andre Nemec, Jeff Pinkner, and Scott Rosenberg. Chris Yost will write the adaptation.

“Cowboy Bebop,” which takes place in 2071 in the original version, follows Spike Spiegel and his gang of bounty hunters, also known as cowboys, as they cavort around the galaxy attempting to capture bad guys and survive some of the most intense dangers the galaxy has to offer. The anime series has been successful in Western markets, and is credited with introducing a new wave of Western viewers to anime. It’s also widely cited as one of the best anime series of all time.

It’s good that Sunrise is working on this and Chris Yost is a decent writer of not only Marvel animated properties but also Thor: The Dark World and the upcoming Thor: Ragnarok, so he’s familiar with the comic book-y material, but this project kinda feels really, really, really late. The original broadcast of Cowboy Bebop was in 1998, and the feature film followed in 2001. 16 years later seems like maybe too long. For me Cowboy Bebop a show that is firmly rooted in a place and time in my life and a place and time in pop culture. I re-watched the series last year and while it still mostly holds up, there’s something that’s kinda missing now that really wasn’t then (side note: it’s not the music, the music is still absolutely amazing and you should listen to it). Maybe that’s just me projecting though.

There’s also the prospect of casting a live action series and that has all the potential to be completely problematic, so I’m sure the internet will handle whatever the news is on that front with grace and tact.

In any event, there’s no news other than that this is happening, so we’ll look for updates as they happen. Hopefully we won’t be days behind when they do.